


Life Before Maple Bay

by septimsempra



Category: Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator
Genre: Halloween, M/M, Male Alex (Dream Daddy), Morning Sickness, My Chemical Romance References, Softball, Trans Dadsona (Dream Daddy), Trans Male Character, canon character death (alex), dead goth and beyond, the Emmas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-06
Updated: 2017-08-18
Packaged: 2018-12-11 19:10:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 3,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11720688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/septimsempra/pseuds/septimsempra
Summary: Short snippets of life before Amanda and her Dad move to Maple Bay. Chapters are short, and only really give part of a picture. I might expand more on things, but probably not unless someone requests that I do. Dadsona isn't named specifically to allow other readers to relate to him rather than just me. As a trans guy I feel like we could always use more people to relate to.





	1. Mornings are hard

Sitting on the bathroom floor with my forehead pressed against the cool porcelain of my toilet, I tried to catch my breath. I’ve been sick every morning all week. I’m not an idiot; I know what that’s a symptom of. “Alex,” I moan, turning my head toward the door. My legs aren’t cooperating with me. I manage to call for him once more before I get sick again. 

“Honey?” Alex drops the laundry he was carrying outside and rushes to my side. His eyes were wide and his forehead was showing all his premature worry wrinkles. 

He rubs my back in small circles. My hair isn’t long enough to need holding back, but if it were I’m sure he’d help out there. Alex stops for a moment to get me a cup of water to rinse my mouth out. 

“You’re a peach,” I groan.

“I love you, but you’re disgusting, sweetie. Please don’t breathe on me,” he begged, covering his mouth. I could see sweat forming on his forehead and his torso leaned away from me. I chuckled weakly. 

“Listen,” I pause, using my arm to wipe at my mouth. “I’ve been sick every morning this week. But today was the worst. I’ll be fine by afternoon and we can find out why I’ve been sick then,” I assured. His face turned serious, and he nodded. 

“Okay, now help me stand up.”


	2. Amanda gets Chaotic Good from Alex's Side of the Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They find out for sure, and right a few wrongs.

We weren’t planning on having a child this young. Or having one at all. I had wanted to focus on my own problems and personal growth before having a child, but that’s not how things worked out. Alex had this look in his eyes when he found out that I was actually pregnant. This wide-eyed youthful look. And he smiled bright enough to put the sun to shame. He noticed that I was shaking, and it all came to a sudden halt. 

“Honey,” he paused. “I’m sorry, I was only thinking about myself. I-I.. You know that I’ve always wanted a kid. I know that we didn’t plan this--”

I held up a hand to stop him. “It’s not that. It’s just unexpected. Of course I want to have kids with you. I just don’t know if I’m ready. I’m a mess, Alex.”

“Shh. You are not. You know exactly who you are. I know exactly who you are. No one else matters in that equation.”

“I don’t want to be listed as the kid’s mom, Alex,” I whispered, tears finally falling from my eyes. I covered my mouth with a shaking hand. 

“Paperwork be damned, you will always be this kid’s dad!” Alex swore, pulling my hand into his and holding it tight. “Just like you’ll always be my husband.” 

“What?” 

Alex pulled his hands away from mine, and I noticed that I was holding a thin gold band. “Sorry I probably could have asked you in a better way, but I’ve just been carrying that for like two months waiting for the right moment to propose to you, and I couldn’t take it anymore, but I also didn’t want you to think that it was because you were pregnant, but I also definitely wanted to marry you before we have our kid, despite the fact that it would I guess be a shotgun wedding. I also wanted--” I cut of his stupid ramblings with a kiss, and we both relax into the other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey feel free to let me know if there are typos. i don't proofread.


	3. Hey Baby

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amanda's here.

“Alex, she’s beautiful,” I whispered softly. I held Amanda in my arms, unable to look away. I felt hands brush the hair stuck to my forehead back, and familiar lips press against my forehead.

“She’s got your nose,” Alex sighed, wrapping an arm around me. 

“But her other dad’s dashing good looks,” I replied wryly. “Poor kid.” Alex laughed, and the sound of it wrapped around me like gentle hug.

“I’ll let that slide because you just went through like 10 hours of labor.”

“It was only 10 hours?” I groaned, closing my eyes.

Alex hummed in confirmation and gently eased Amanda out of my arms and brought her back to the crib the hospital provided for her. 

“Sleep, sweetheart. You earned it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> real short. mostly dialogue


	4. Amanda Wore Shades for the First Two Years of Her Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cool Baby.

“Our baby is so rad,” Alex commented, looking through his Polaroid camera and snapping a picture of Amanda. She was wearing sunglasses that she’d managed to pull off of Alex’s face. He set the photo aside to let it develop and let the camera fall back to his chest. 

“She gets it from me,” I assure, leaning back and kicking a leg up with a stupid grin on my face. I fell back onto our bed with a creak as our old mattress gave way. I heard it creak a second time before I felt Alex sit next to me and lean over me. 

“My sweet rad husband and my amazing rad child. She’s gonna grow up and be just as cool as her dad, and maybe, just maybe, as good looking as her other one.” My eyes shot open at the blatant self-serving comment and caught a shit-eating grin on Alex’s face. 

“She’s already better lookin’ than you, old man,” I deadpan, eyes half lidded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> amanda is great, and i love banter between married dads


	5. Halloween '03

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amanda is a dragon princess. I love her.

“My dashing knight,” I hum, pulling up the visor to Alex’s knight mask kissing him soundly. He hands me the camera.

“Here, get a photo of Amanda and I matching later, alright? You remember how to use flash?” After I assured him that I knew what to do, he flipped down his visor again and ran after our daughter. “‘Manda!”

While she was running up to Alex I snapped a photo of her in her princess dragon costume just before Alex scooped her up and they walked toward the next house. I, of course, was dressed as the tower that the princess dragon lived in, and the knight visited weekly to train against the dragon and sing it love songs. Amanda decided all this, of course. She is a very imaginative child

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> in the picture at the beginning of the game you can see that there's a knight in the picture with her. i assume they made matching costumes together.


	6. Foreshadowing: The Chapter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amanda's got a new BFF, and Alex is the one that can tell apart the Emmas.

“Daddy, can Emma come over to play?”

“Which one, sweetie? Emma R or Emma S?” Alex asked, folding the book he was reading over the arm of his chair and leaning forward to focus his attention on Amanda. 

“R. We wanted to build a fort again.” 

“Hmm…” I trail off, sipping my tea and leaning back in my chair at the dining room table. “I don’t know. I seem to remember cleaning up a lot of that fort the last time she was over…”

“Daaaaaad! I promise to clean it up before I have to go to bed,” Amanda pleaded. 

I side eye Alex and he just shrugs. I close my eyes and hold back a sigh. “Alright, alright. Do you remember her phone number?” Amanda lists a string of numbers that I vaguely recognize and I hand her the phone off the hook behind me, allowing her to call her friend. After inviting her friend over she gives both of her dads a hug and runs outside to the driveway to wait for her friend to bike over. 

“Tired?” Alex asks, watching as I lean my elbows on the table. 

“Couldn’t sleep well last night. I was worried about you,” I sigh. I catch his brows drawing together, and our hands meet halfway. 

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you. I thought I’d be home earlier but work let out late. Plus the roads were bad with that storm we had. I had to pull over a couple times. I’ll call next time I get let out late, alright?” 

I nod. He kisses my hand. “Thank you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im trying to train my computer that 'dads' is a word. it seems to believe otherwise


	7. A Late-Night Phone Call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex keeps his promise.

“Hello?”

 

 _“Hey, just calling to let you know that work ran over again. I should be headed home here any minute now,”_ Alex’s voice crackles from the bad reception he always gets in his studio.

 

“Thanks for calling. I’ll see you soon. Drive safe, okay?” I smile into the receptor.

 

_“I will. I love you.”_

 

“Love you, too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning for next chapter its gonna be sad im gonna be sad dadsona is gonna be sad amanda everyone is gonna be sad


	8. Hard Truths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They find out for sure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sadness warning ahead.

Despite the phone call, I waited awake in the living room for Alex to get home. He’d called me at nearly nine, but looking at the clock on the wall it was claiming it was almost midnight. I started to get a terrible feeling in my stomach at about 10:30, but Alex wasn’t answering any phone calls or texts. 

Nearing one in the morning there was a knock at the door. I felt my knees go weak, knowing that it couldn’t be Alex. I opened the door and stared at the police officer at my door step. “I noticed the light was on. Is this the address of Alex Martinson?”

My throat felt constricted, so I could only nod and gasp out, “Yes..” I hold onto the door frame.

“Alex was in a car accident. He passed before he could make it to the hospital.”

“Daddy? I’m thirsty.” I turn suddenly and Amanda is standing at the end of the hallway, rubbing sleep from her eyes. I walk unsteadily toward her and help her get a glass down from the cupboard. “Why is there a policeman here, Dad?” Amanda asks, scared. 

Putting on a brave face, I crouch down to her level. “I’ll tell you in a minute kiddo. I have to finish talking to him okay? Get your water and wait for me in the living room okay? Be careful not to spill.” I force a smile, and walk back to the front door. 

The police officer looks a bit stricken. He obviously hadn’t known that Alex had a child. “I would invite you in, but I don’t want Amanda to hear this from a stranger,” I explain, my voice strained. 

“He was hit while going through an intersection by a driver that fell asleep at the wheel. That driver has also passed. There were no other injuries to speak of. Alex died while on the way to the hospital at around 11 this evening.”

He’d already been dead for two hours? 

“Thank you officer. I’ll deal with… everything in the morning.” I hear myself say.

“My condolences… Sir,” he said hesitantly before nodding his head and returning to his cruiser. 

After dead-bolting the door I return to the living room where a scared looking Amanda is already on the verge of tears. 

“Oh Panda,” I sigh, sitting next to her and pulling her into a tight embrace. 

“Where’s Daddy?” she asked, returning the hug. 

“He’s gone,” I choke. “Daddy is gone, Amanda.” 

She cries and sobs and screams, but all I can do is hold her tightly and wish this is all a dream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be real I dont know if the police just come to your house and let you know or not. lets pretend they do in this world if they don't though, okay?


	9. The world still turns.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Life continues, even if it feels like it shouldn't.

Life gets harder after the funeral. Insurance paid for some of the ceremony, but not for half of the income they’d been using to support their child, and pay the electric. With Amanda back in school full time, and Alex gone, the house felt colder. I considered getting a dog for companionship, but knowing that Alex had always wanted one, and the fact that I couldn’t afford it now prevented me from doing it. 

Though I continued to work from home, I expanded my work to online tutoring and providing tech support and mechanical maintenance in the area. It wasn’t much, but it got me out of an otherwise empty house, and it helped put food on the table. 

I turn my head as I hear the front door open and two young voices talking and shoes being kicked off against the front stoop. “Dad! Emma came over! We’re gonna hang out in my room!” Amanda shouted. I walk out of the kitchen holding a plate of cookies. 

“Hey Emma. I had some free time today so I made these. They’re still wa-” as soon as the plate was within Amanda’s reach, she took the plate from me with a grin I hadn’t seen in a few months. “-rm…”

“Thanks Dad!” she beamed. 

Emma smiled politely and echoed, “Thanks.”

“No problem. Don’t tell your mom I let you eat an entire plate of cookies. And make Amanda share,” I warn Emma eyeing my daughter with rightful suspicion. 

“Daaaad.” 

I smile and turn back toward the kitchen, “Shoo, go, be children. Have fun. Bring me the plate once you’re done.” 

It was good to see Amanda smiling again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> funerals bum me out so i didnt write one. it would have been gross sobbing and stuff, you get the picture.


	10. The Big Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amanda attempts to play softball.

“C’mon, ‘Manda. It’ll be fun,” I promised, tugging a reluctant Amanda out of the car. She was dressed head to toe in a softball uniform. 

“Dad I know that I said I wanted to do this but at the same time I’m having serious second thoughts,” Amanda complained, sounding mature for an 11 year old. 

“I bought you cleats. You have to use them in at least one real game or I’ll cry because I already threw away the receipt,” I replied. 

Amanda sighed, but made her way over to her team. She’d had practice every Tuesday and Thursday the past two weeks, but today was her first real game. I set up my lawn chair near the dugout so that I didn’t have to sit and mingle with other parents. I had just settled into my chair when I heard Amanda scream. My head shot up and I watched as she ran off the field. I walked over to the entrance to the dugout where Amanda was cowering, and met the coach halfway. 

“What happened?” I asked, concerned. 

“I don’t know,” the mom shrugged. “She ran off the field when the softball went toward her.”

Crouching near Amanda, I put my hand on her shoulder and she screamed again. “Sweetie, what’s wrong?” 

She screamed at my face, eyes filled with tears. I took off my hat and wiped her face a little. She blinked a few times and realized it was me. Throwing her arms around me, she cried into my shoulder. I lifted her off the ground and sighed, knowing that I would never be able to return those cleats. 

"Let's go home, sweetheart."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you find out in Craig's route that Amanda played softball once. 
> 
> Once.


	11. Tween Angst

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The last concert Dadsona went to.

Regret. That’s all a dad can feel when he stares at his once immaculate car as it’s interior is covered in glitter. I only just held it together because I could tell how much fun Amanda was having. 

My only daughter was scream-singing songs incredibly off-key in the backseat. I was left contemplating how in the world I was supposed to contain such tween energy in one four-door vehicle. 

Once we got to the concert I saw a few other haggard looking adults around my age and in that moment I believed that I had never understood another person more than I understood a man holding a cup of coffee with a smear of glitter over his right cheek. 

We made eye contact and I could see him almost visibly deflate. Like he was glad that he wasn’t the only one. I raised my cup of coffee to the man just before both of our daughters started pulling us inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We find out in Mat's run that Amanda dragged her poor dad to a concert when she was a tween.


	12. Give 'Em Hell Kid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Guess who read too far into a MCR song for the first time since they were in 6th grade? Me. The answer was me. Title is misleading. it's not that MCR song. it's actually famous last words. i'm not sorry.

I can’t help but wonder if I’m doing the right thing. If I’m doing enough for Amanda. I can only hope that my ray of sunshine knows how much she means to me, and hope that wherever Alex may be he knows that I’m trying my best.

 

_ Well is it hard understanding-- _

_ I’m incomplete?  _

 

I work even more now that Amanda can be home alone for extended periods of time. I always make sure to be home when she’s on her way out of the house, but I work until nearly dinner time every night. I worry that being away from her is making us drift apart, but that also could be the whole ‘teenager’ thing. She’s thirteen now--all grown up in her book.

 

_ A life that’s so demanding _

_ I get so weak  _

 

Every time I look at Amanda I see bits of Alex. I’ll always smile, wishing that Alex could see Amanda’s mannerisms and rebellion that reminded me so much of him. The way she could spin any situation into a positive one, and her bright, bright, smile always made me think of Alex immediately. I miss him, but Amanda definitely makes his loss easier. 

 

_ A love that’s so demanding _

_ I can’t speak _

 

So here I stand in front of a completely ruined My Chemical Romance stand as Famous Last Words by the same band plays over the intercom system inside of this Dead, Goth and Beyond. Amanda is sitting on the ground, looking completely miserable. 

 

“You’re gonna have to pay for this,” the underpaid overworked frazzled manager told me in a matter-of-fact fashion. 

 

“I’d expect nothing less,” I sigh. 

 

_ I am not afraid to keep on living  _

_ I am not afraid to walk this world alone _

 

After I finish collecting the merch that Amanda yakked on I help her stand and I carry the bag and half carry Amanda to our car in the parking lot. 

 

“Sorry, Dad,” Amanda mumbled once we were in the car. 

 

“You’ve got nothin’ to be sorry over, Panda. I shouldn’t have let you have that slushie,” I replied, feeling a bit guilty. The ride home was quiet, and by the time I I pulled into the driveway, Amanda had nodded off to sleep. I gently woke her, and helped her inside before leaving her alone so she could clean up. I got set to cleaning up the merch that Amanda had soiled, and threw away everything that was completely unsalvageable. On the bright side, Amanda had some new CDs and I had a few new shirts. For cleaning in. And absolutely never going out in public in. 

 

_ Honey if you stay, I’ll be forgiven _

_ Nothing you can say can stop me going home. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> trivia: the first tattoo i ever wanted in the 5th grade was "i am not afraid to keep on living i am not afraid to walk this world alone" and now im writing about it on the internet. dont give up on your dreams, kids.


	13. Amanda's First Job

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amanda joins the workforce and finds that maybe capitalism isn't all it's cracked up to be

“So… You lasted an hour and a half before they told you to take a hike, huh,” I hum looking over at my daughter who was clutching her burnt hand close to her chest and leaning against the window with a scowl on her face.

“Daaaaad. I don’t want to talk about it,” she grumbled. 

“I saw the sign. It said, ‘experience required’. Did that just… get over looked? Or did you maybe... tell a little… lie, Amanda Ann?” I give her a Look. Eyebrows raised, mouth pursed, the whole nine yards. 

This kid can eyeroll with the best of them, but I know where she learned all her tricks. 

“So, my dear sweet summer child, where are we getting ice cream to celebrate this milestone in your life?” I ask turning out of the parking lot and heading onto the main road. 

“Coldstone?” She looked hopeful.

“Done.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> seriously though i dont proofread or anything i just blab this out and post if i make a mistake let me know

**Author's Note:**

> hey this is the first fanfiction I've written since like 2009. let me know if you like it. I've decided that this is as done as it's going to be. I might write more in the fandom, but this is all I had for this specific idea of before they moved to Maple Bay. Thank you so much for reading!


End file.
